Do Pretty-Boy Quarterbacks Make More Money?

When Brett Favre “retired,” he held the records for most career touchdown passes and most career passing yards. He also ended 2007 with another record: most attractive starting quarterback.

We tend to think that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Research, though, has indicated that what we think of as facial attractiveness is really just facial symmetry. And of all the faces of starting quarterbacks from 2007, Favre’s, as measured by a computer, is the most symmetrical. In other words, he’s the most attractive.

In football, prettiness shouldn’t matter — just ask Johnny Unitas. Players are evaluated solely on their ability to contribute to wins, right? Not entirely. The economists Rob Simmons, Jennifer VanGilder and I collected data on 121 N.F.L. quarterbacks who played from 1995 to 2006. We looked at the factors that determine player pay — career statistics, experience, Pro Bowl appearances and draft position — as well as the symmetry of each quarterback’s face. Sure enough, symmetry had a positive impact on a quarterback’s salary. Specifically, an increase of one standard deviation in facial symmetry led to a nearly 8 percent increase in pay.

To put this result in perspective, we found that a “good-looking” quarterback like Kerry Collins or Charlie Frye earned approximately $300,000 more per year than his stats and other pay factors would predict. Meanwhile, quarterbacks like Jeff George and Neil O’Donnell, who, sadly, were not found to have very symmetrical faces, suffered an equivalent penalty.

But it’s not the Brett Favres — the guys often referred to as “the face of the franchise” — who receive the greatest return on their handsome faces. It’s the QBs clinging to the bottom of the roster who get the biggest pay bump from good looks.

What this indicates is that when teams are scouting backups, they may be looking for just another pretty face. This is good news for Dan Orlovsky, who is battling Drew Stanton for the backup position with the Detroit Lions. No offense to Stanton, but the computer has spoken: Orlovsky is the better-looking prospect.

David J. Berri is an economist and a co-author of “The Wages of Wins.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page MM49 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Do Pretty-Boy Quarterbacks Make More Money?. Today's Paper|Subscribe